Physics Engines In Video Games

[Zilch]

Could some one give me a hand with this? I need info for a school project (yeah, I'm doing work in the summer. go figure) , so any knowledge you have would be appreciated. 10-Q.

[shooraijin]

Like how, their implementation, limitations, ... ?

[TheMelodyMaker]

The only "physics engine" I use in The Traveller's Guide that I can think of is gravity. I've figured out normal gravity to be a quarter of a pixel per frame, assuming 80 frames per second (the other "FPS"... ).

I hope that helps a little... that's all I can think of to say at the moment. ^_^;

[LorentzForce]

A physics engine in a game can be ridiculously complicated, or ridiculously simple, depending on how realistic it is. Usually in most games it's just gravity, velocity, deceleration due to air friction, and contact.

Gravity takes care of falling objects.
Velocity is which direction the object is moving, as well as rotation.
Deceleration takes care of objects slowing down. Makes it look "real".
Contact is when two objects touch each other. Will they stop completely? Will one go through another?

That's the basic part of physics in gaming. Harder part comes in when you have to figure out how to implement it. Say in 3D games, it's very difficult to let all objects to have all the above attributes, because that'll severely reduce the performance of the engine. So, even in HL2, the walls are still brushes without any attributes (other than texture) and rest are all models. How "real" the models behave will determine how "real" it'll appear on the screen.

Any more questions?

[Technomancer]

There are a couple of books on physics for game programmers; you may be able to find one of them in your local library. You can certainly look them up on Amazon.